Coach’s trial on sex charge begins

A college soccer coach who'd been chatting online for hours about meeting a 13-year-old girl for a sexual tryst admitted he'd made "a big mistake" when his rendezvous turned out to be with Louisa County law enforcement.

The question explored during the first day of Joseph Okoh's jury trial was what kind of mistake.

Prosecutors contended that the mistake was an attempt by the 41-year-old Arlington resident to get together with someone he thought was a Louisa County teenager, a series of events that led to his arrest. Okoh's defense lawyers said a persona he used during online role-playing resulted in a mistaken felony solicitation charge.

If convicted of using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor, Okoh could face up to 30 years in prison.

Okoh was suspended as coach of Howard University's men's soccer team after he was charged.

Dressed in a dark business suit, he sat stoically during yesterday's proceedings, often taking notes as Louisa Detective Patrick Siewert recited in graphic sexual detail Okoh's archived chat records on Jan. 25 with Siewert, who was communicating under the persona of the teenaged girl.

Siewert testified for more than three hours yesterday inside Louisa County Circuit Court, the only testimony on the first day of Okoh's trial.

Siewert testified that after Okoh contacted Siewert's undercover persona about 4:45 p.m., the conversation went from cordial to sexually inquisitive until Okoh agreed to drive that night from his Arlington home to meet the "girl" in Louisa for an encounter.

Per their online conversation, Okoh showed up at a convenience store just across the Spotsylvania County line with the alcohol he agreed to bring and driving the silver 2003 Toyota Corolla he told his new friend he'd be driving, Siewert told jurors.

Investigators seized the laptop with the cellular wireless Internet card Okoh referred to during the instant message chat that went on during the trip, the detective stated.

Okoh also had with him a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice that Siewert asked for in his undercover role and a laptop bag with condoms.

Distraught when he was nabbed, Okoh admitted to Siewert that he'd made a mistake, confessed that he was the one behind the Yahoo chat screen name and admitted to the sexual statements made under Okoh's online identity, Siewert testified.

"He said it was him the whole time, and that no one else was sending messages under that screen name," said Siewert, an investigator who is part of the Bedford County-based Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Okoh's defense lawyers hammered away at what they called the false pretense under which Siewert lured their client into the meeting that led to his arrest.

In opening statements and during cross-examination, they gleaned that Yahoo chat users must be 18 to open an account and that it's not unusual for people in chat forums to misstate their ages and other personal information. They also suggested that Okoh might have been involved in role-playing with someone he assumed was another adult.

"Coach Okoh was in an adult romance" chat room, defense attorney Sherman Lambert said during opening statements. "Nothing that he did was outside the scope of the [chat] regulations."

Okoh is expected to testify after the trial resumes today at 9 a.m.
Contact staff writer Calvin R. Trice at (540) 932-3674 or .